Authoritarian populism

Douglas Kellner

Chapter 25 in Research Handbook on Critical Theory, 2026, pp 278-286 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Authoritarian populism has become a major defining feature of contemporary politics in the 21st century. Authoritarian populism occurs when political leaders organise and lead political movements that have the marks of classical authoritarianism, characterised by a strong state, and an authoritarian leader who is contemptuous of the norms of democracy and the rule of law, and who uses authoritarian methods and institutions to produce an authoritarian populist movement in which the people believe that the leader and his political agenda will benefit the people, but often it primarily benefits the authoritarian leader and his associates and underlings. In this chapter, I will show how Frankfurt School analyses of the authoritarian personality and authoritarian state provide models that can explain and critique not only the fascist and right-wing movements that they were critiquing in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and when they emigrated to the United States and worked in the 1940s, but are valid to critique authoritarian populism and leaders of the 21st century.

Keywords: Authoritarian Populism; Authoritarian State; Authoritarian Personality; Political Leaders (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781800373754
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